The past few weeks the entire internet has been going bonkers over the Google phone, yet another in a long line of Android phones that has everyone's knickers in twists. Up until now we had to go by small photos and Twitter messages from Google employees, but now we have full specifications, a hands-on, and video.

Another thing Apple does to increase the perceived speed of launching iPhone applications, is to ask the developers to provide a screenshot of their app's first screen. When you launch an application, the iPhone displays that screenshot while it draws the UI.

For example try opening Maps. For the first half second you can see the search bar on top, with the little magnifying glass and the Address book button. On the bottom you can see the toolbar with the two buttons and the segmented control. These are not drawn UI widgets but just a png that is displayed while the actual widgets are drawn.

This is a great example of how you can sacrifice real speed to increase the perceived speed.